Labor Day Weekend

piper in the pines

We are safely ensconced in the Little Diamond KOA as I write this.  I just cooked dinner on our range….spiced salmon and 4 cheese pasta.  Left Hand Milk Stout to go with it.  Current temperature is 68 degrees.

We got up this morning with no agenda, what a great feeling!  Cold night, just over freezing here at daybreak.  Had our coffee and waited for the waffle feed to open (yeah we got up at 0530 and couldn’t go back to sleep).  Wandered our way over to the family lodge and enjoyed waffles and sausage with fresh mixed berry compote for 5 bucks each.

waffles with Flynn

We then wandered back to Piper.  Just so you have an idea, this KOA has 360 acres of land.

looking across the disc golf course to the lodge in the distance

It is almost half a mile to the family lodge from our campsite.  Just down from the family lodge is the little diamond lake (actually just a swamp till someone dammed it up).  Now it is a decent little pond.  They rent boats here for 4 dollars an hour.  RP decided that this would be a great time to try her first time in a kayak.  We rented 2 and set off from the beach.  She found that the kayak felt a little “tippy” but was not uncomfortable.  We paddled around the pond for an hour and returned the kayaks.

Flynn paddles with E

The folks here said they had the pond stocked with trout back in the spring.  We decided to get our new used travel boat out and see how it does.

We had received the inflatable boat from RP’s Dad back in the spring.  he had received it as a gift from a yachting friend.  Anyway, this was also the first time we tried out this little 6 foot Zodiac with hard slats in the floor.  It unrolls from it’s bag nicely and airs up within 15 minutes using my 12 volt air mattress pump.  a couple of wooden paddles from Cabelas and we were ready to go.  loaded the cooler with lunch and the tackle box and our little pack fishing rod and off we went.  We paddled out to the far end of the lake where we had discovered a couple beaver lodges and baited a hook while floating next to the marsh.  RP got our sandwiches and fruit and a picnic ensued on our little boat.  It floats nicely and is easy to paddle about with two people.  An absolutely beautiful day was had.  The sun was just right with no clouds and enough of a breeze that the temperature never got over 70 degrees.

After lunch and the lack of fish we decided to head in and go walkabout within the park.  I loaded the boat up in Beastie Boy and we headed back to camp.

all roads are well marked in the campground

E took a shower and we decided to head over to the family lodge again.  They were having the season end ice cream social and were trying to get rid of all the ice cream.  A 3 dollar double scoop actually turned into a full bowl of ice cream with all the caramel and chocolate sauce you could put on it.

Flynn has a sundae

The place was packed and it was funny to see the kids running around with blue faces from eating “candy cane” ice cream.  We shared a couch and table with a very pleasant teen girl who was articulate, cute and well mannered (she offered us some of her gummy worms and Oreo’s to top our ice cream with, we declined graciously).

We then headed out for our nightly walk about the park.  Gotta burn off some of those carbs.  We walked about 1.5 miles and then headed for Piper where I took a shower and cooked dinner.

Full circle, then.  I hope you enjoy this little travelogue and get some insight into our vacation and what we get to see and do.

I hope that this gives you the incentive to go and make your own memories and have some fun.  We are by no means the great adventurers, but we do what we want and see what looks good to us.  Each of us should have that as a goal when out there.  You don’t have to climb Everest, dive Truk Island, safari in Africa or hike the Columbia Crest Trail.  Just get out there and see what your world has to offer.  A month long vacation isn’t needed, go on day trips to the local sights.  Have you been to the local “tourist draw” that everyone thinks is only for the tourists?  Don’t wait until you are retired from work, that day may not come or you may not be healthy enough to go do that hike you wanted to do.

Just come along with us and LET’S GO!!!

As always,

BFD

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